Victory (22 page)

Authors: Susan Cooper

BOOK: Victory

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She says softly, “I commit Sam's bit of Nelson to the deep.”

Holding the scrap of fabric between her fingertips and thumb, she leans over the edge of the boat and lowers her hand into the water. And as the sea takes it, the scrap of cloth dissolves into a little dark cloud, like a ragged trail of dust, slipping away through the grey water, fading, until it is gone.

Molly says to the sea, “That's for Sam Robbins, and for Daddy.”

Far off behind the slap of the waves against the boat she hears a faint echo of distant sound, like the roar of an airplane, like the boom of a gun.

Then the wind picks up again and the mainsail flaps loudly, demandingly. Carl calls from the tiller, “Okay?”

“Okay!” Molly calls back. She smiles at him.

“Let's go home,” she says.

A
UTHOR'S
N
OTE

This book is a work of fiction, and the life of Samuel Robbinsâlike that of Molly Jenningsâis entirely my own invention.

But there really was a Samuel Robbins on board HMS
Victory
at the Battle of Trafalgar: a ship's boy, age thirteen. Every other member of the crew who appears in this story was a real person too; you can find them all listed at the
Victory
's fascinating Web site,
www.hms-victory.com
, and amazingly detailed in
The Men of HMS Victory at Trafalgar
by John D. Clarke.

There are two wonderfully vivid books about the life Sam and his shipmates must have led, both written by former seamen:
Sea Life in Nelson's Time
by John Masefield and
Life in Nelson's Navy
by Dudley Pope. Among the
many good biographies of Horatio Nelson himself, my favorites are those by Carola Oman, Christopher Hibbert, Tom Pocock and Ernle Bradfordâand, of course, Robert Southey.

Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson did not live to be promoted to full admiral, but I have the assurance of a living rear-admiral of Her Majesty's Navy that one may address any kind of admiral as “Admiral” after using his precise rank the first time. Sam Robbins's encounters with Admiral Nelson are not historical; they came out of my imagination, and I loved writing them. Perhaps I wrote this whole book only for the chance of meeting one of my greatest heroes, just as I was lucky enough to meet Shakespeare in a book called
King of Shadows
and Merlin, long ago, in a sequence called
The Dark Is Rising
. Writers are fortunate people.

G
LOSSARY
afterguard

Just as the front end of a ship is called the bow and the back end the stern, the front, middle and rear areas are called fore, midships and after. The afterguard is the name for the members of the crew who man the sails at the rear of the ship.

beat to quarters

A drummer beating to quarters was beating out a rhythmic tune that called the crew to their positions for battle.

belay

In sailing, to belay a line is to make it fast, usually round a
cleat. In speech, “belay that” means “pay no attention,” or just “stop.”

bosun

The boatswainâbosun for shortâwas one of the most important members of the crew, in charge of many things, including the condition and operation of the ship's boats, sails, rigging, anchors and cables.

bosun's pipe

Round his neck the bosun wore a silver whistle, known always in the Royal Navy as a “call,” and for each order issued by an officer, he blew a particular sequence of notes and then shouted the order. This was then repeated throughout the ship by his assistants, the bosun's mates, chosen from the most experienced of the seamen.

capstan

An enormous wooden cylinder, turned by seamen pushing bars that were fitted into holes in the cylinder's top; the capstan was generally used to wind up the anchor cable when pulling up (“weighing”) the anchor.

carronade

A short-barrelled gun that fired a very heavy shot, doing enormous damage at close quarters.

cutlass

A short, wide-bladed sword used by seamen against boarders.

dry dock

An enclosed area of water in a dockyard, into which a ship can be floated and the water then pumped out, leaving the ship's exterior dry for repairs.

flagship

A flag officer wasâand isâan Admiral, Vice-Admiral, Rear-Admiral or Commodore, and his ship flies his flag of command.

fo'c'sle

Short for “forecastle,” the raised deck between the foremast and the bow.

galley

The ship's kitchen, on the main or upper deck.

helmsman

The helm, controlled by the helmsman, moves the rudder, which steers the vessel; the helm is a wheel in a large ship, a tiller in a small sailboat.

maintopmen

The topsails are above the first sails; the topmen work them. Maintopmen work the topsails on the mainmast.

midshipman

A naval officer in training, who might be as young as 14 or as old as 40.

pike

A long wooden spear with an iron tip.

rigging

All the ropes, or lines, on a ship are known collectively as the rigging. Standing rigging supports the masts and the yards (the poles to which square sails are attached); running rigging controls the sails.

sheet

A rope attached to a sail, or to the boom along which a sail is stretched, and hauled to change the angle of the sail. In a dinghy, the mainsheet controls the mainsail, the jibsheet the jibâthe smaller sail forward of the mast.

splice the mainbrace

This is the order to serve an extra ration of rumâoriginally a reward for seamen who had the dangerous job of repairing the mainbrace rope high above the deck.

A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR

Susan Cooper was born in England and was a reporter and feature writer for the
Sunday Times
in London before coming to live in the United States. Of her books for children, the best known are the five books in the fantasy sequence
The Dark Is Rising
, which have among them won a Newbery Medal, a Newbery Honor, two Carnegie Honors, and several other awards. Her book
King of Shadows
was also short-listed for the Carnegie Medal. Her television screenplays for adults have received two Writers Guild Awards and two Emmy nominations. Susan Cooper has two grown children and lives in Connecticut.

A
remarkable fantasy sequence by Susan Cooper, described by
The Horn Book
as being “as rich and eloquent as a Beethoven symphony.”